Burgundofara

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Burgundofara (died 643 or 655), also Saint Fara, was the foundress and first Abbess of the Abbey of Faremoutiers. She belong to the noble clan known as the Faronids.

Jonas of Bobbio's life of Columbanus reports that she was blessed by the Irish monk when a child:

Then Columban went to the city of Meaux. There he was received with great joy by a nobleman Hagneric [Chagneric], who was a friend of Theudebert [King Theudebert II], a wise man, and a counsellor grateful to the king, and was fortified by nobility and wisdom. ... Columban blessed his house and consecrated to the Lord his daughter Burgundofara, who was still a child, and of whom we shall speak later.^[1]

Jonas's life of Burgundofara picks up the tale. She was betrothed against her will, and against Columbanus' prediction, and straight away fell deathly sick. Her father said to Eustasius of Luxeuil, who happened to be present, "Would that she might return to health and devote herself to divine service!" Burgundofara recovered, thanks to Eustasius's prayers, but her father went back on his word and decided to give her away in marriage. She discovered this, and fled to the church of Saint Stephen in Meaux. There her brothers Burgundofaro and Chagnoald caught her, and would have killed her for disobeying their father, had not Eustasius again arrived and settled matters.

With Eustasius's support, and the approval of Bishop Gundoald of Meaux, Burgundofara established an abbey on her father's lands. First called Evoriacum, it was later renamed Faremoutiers in her honour.

Studies of Burgundofara's life, and those of noble heiresses in similar situations, lead some writers to conclude that in fact the abbey was very likely established with her father's blessing, and the supposed parental insistence upon her marriage may have been no more than a front, especially if the marriage was proposed by the King. An edit of King Chilperic I a generation earlier had favoured daughters over uncles and nephews, making the marriage of an heiress of considerable importance to the wider family.

[edit] Faronids

The family to which Burgundofara belonged are known as the Faronids. Their origins are thought to have been among the Burgundians of the first, Rhineland Burgundian kingdom, the destruction of which is remembered in the Niebelungenlied.